I seem to have read about and heard about people having organ transplants over the last few years. I know that people are often on waiting lists for organs coming from someone who would be a good donor match. I wonder whether most of the donations come from dead people who indicated when they were alive that they wanted their organs to be donated or whether it is usually the relatives of the dead person who make the decision.
According to this article http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/organ-donation regarding organ donation in the U.S, “the need far exceeds the supply of transplantable organs.” Organ donation has come a long way since the late 1960’s when there were no federal laws dealing with the issue. The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act of 1968 (AGA) made it easier for people to pass on their organs after death and increase the number of available organs. Another step forward was taken in the fight for more easily accessible organs when the Uniform Donor Card was recognized as a legal document by all 50 states in 1972(after being mandated by The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act). I am interested in how long after the organs are taken out is the body given back to relatives for burial or cremation. The article talks about some countries like France and Denmark where bodies are used for research and organ transplants unless the formerly living people specifically indicated that they did not want their bodies to be used for these purposes, in other words the exact opposite of what happens in the U.S.
My feeling is that when a person dies, the body is just an empty shell. I believe that people should allow their bodies to be used to help living people. I also don’t think that wakes with open coffins make any sense at all. The idea of putting makeup on a dead person so that everyone can say how great and how peaceful he/she looks is ridiculous to me. I would want to remember dead people the way they were when they were alive, not the way they were when they were dead. I realize that other people feel differently for religious or cultural reasons, but I think that everyone should sign organ donor cards no matter what is done with the body afterwards. I think it’s better to be cremated and have ashes spread somewhere that is meaningful to the dead person and not have ashes end up in an urn.
Questions
1. How long after the organs are removed from the body is the body returned to the family?
2. In the U.S what is the proportion of bodies that are buried vs cremated?
3. After cremation, how often are ashes put in an urn vs scattered somewhere?
4. For environmental reasons, is cremation better than burial?
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